This invention relates to an apparatus utilized for promoting and controlling the production of bee venom in a honey bee colony and enhancing the collection thereof.
The honey bee depends on pollen gathered from plant life for its protein requirement and on the honey that it manufactures for its carbohydrate food component. The bees collect and store these products in a colony so that it is later available during periods of short supply. Recently, the nutritional benefits of honey and pollen have been recognized as being highly beneficial to the human diet. This recognition has generated increasing interest in ways to efficiently and effectively manage a bee colony so as to harvest the bee products.
Typically, a colony structure includes a plurality of vertically stacked supers containing combs for receiving honey to form a segmented colony structure. Included in this colony structure is an entry member included in the base member and typically elevated above the surface of the ground to provide ingress and egress to the overlying stack of hives or supers. The large number of commercial bee operations in this country have resulted in the standardization of the dimensions of the colony structure with the result that most of the apparatus is interchangeable when positioned in a colony structure.
Thus, any additional devices utilized in gathering products from the honey bee colony should be designed so as to conform to these dimensions in order to promote usage. One device marketed as the ROB-BEE pollen trap is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,074, wherein a pollen trap is dimensioned to fit in the stack of hives forming the segmented bee colony. In addition, a propolis gathering device has been designed to be incorporated within the pollen trap and is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,616. Both of these devices are manufactured and sold by the Robson Honey & Supply Company of Phoenix, Ariz.
Another product of the bee colony which is of commercial interest is the venom manufactured by and contained within the bee. Since the bee normally releases venom only after excitation, it is important to control the excitation and release of venom so that it occurs in a restricted environment. Research has been done in the past concerning different methods of provoking bees to reach the excitation stage wherein they release venom. One of these methods is described in United Kingdom Pat. No. 507,269, granted to Forster, et al., and details a mechanical approach toward excitation and venom collection wherein rollers are drawn towards one another so that the bees are subjected to pressure but not maimed or killed. When so agitated, the bees discharge their venom into materials such as felt or other woven materials. This reference teaches the use of woven materials in a large area web configuration disposed over rollers so that the bees release venom by stinging moving woven fabrics. This approach more often than not causes the bee stinger to remain lodged in the material, thus causing death of the bees.
Further research described in the publication BEE WORLD, Vol. 42, No. 9 (Sept. 1961) by D. J. Palmer, outlines studies showing that honey bees will sting if subjected to electric shock. In laboratory tests described in that paper, bees were withdrawn from a colony and placed in proximity to a gel containing electrical connections which produced a current flow through the gel. As a result of excitation by means of an electrical current, the researchers were able to gather sufficient venom to conduct laboratory experiments on venom.
At present, several topical ointments are now in commercial production which utilize bee venom, primarily for arthritic joint pain in humans. In addition, allergenic studies have shown that a larger portion of the population than heretofore recognized is stongly allergic to the sting of a bee and, in many cases, this can be a life threatening experience since it has the capability of inducing a state of shock in the patient. In order to prepare antivenom to desensitize and treat this portion of the population, it is necessary to gather a significant quantity of venom for processing.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide venom collection apparatus for inclusion in a conventional bee colony. The apparatus is constructed so as to not require modification of the external colony structure. Also, the invention is directed to the provision of a medium for essentially eliminating the death of the excited bees through entanglement with the receiving medium. In addition, both the level and duration of the excitation of the bees is externally controlled to prevent unwanted over-excitation of the colony. Further, by utilizing existing equipment available to the bee keeper, the individual keeper is able to generate additional income through the harvesting of venom without disturbing the structures used to gather other hive products now being gathered and marketed.